Natalie Dormer Says She Would Be the First Female Doctor Who, If It Weren’t Just a “Concept”

Game of Thrones and Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer would be open to the idea of playing a female Doctor Who, if the script pulled her in.In an interview with RadioTimes, self-proclaimed “geek” Dormer said she “would do any role if [she] thought the script was fantastic,” when asked if she would be “up for the challenge” of becoming the first female Doctor.

“It [the script] has to be real human beings, contradictory, flawed, complex multidimensional characters,” Dormer said. “It can’t just be concept. You know, female James Bond – CONCEPT. It has to have quality in the writing of real human psychology.”

Dormer is no stranger to taking on the female version of a traditionally male character. She plays Sherlock Holmes nemesis Jamie Moriarity on CBS’ procedural Elementary.

More generally, Dormer said she believes the success of female-centric stories like The Hunger Games can lead to more and more substantial roles for women in sci-fi and fantasy films.

“I’m an optimist. I genuinely believe the tide is turning and it all starts with the writing,”Dormer said. “We need more scripts that do these things, that give the equality in the writing to the characters, because what we’re looking for ultimately is gender irrelevance.

That Coin (Julianne Moore) could have been played by a man easily, that [my character] Cressida could have been played by a man, that Katniss could have been a young boy, a reluctant hero, as opposed to the reluctant heroine.”